Rallying call for all interested: Colonisation of the Moon mod!

[GeoModder]

We also need ideas for some early buildings that give happiness. I can also put those into XML if someone can think of anything.

Hologram Theatre? But perhaps that is better for a later era.
What is a must on the moon (with its lower gravity) is a low-G stadium. Basically a "tank" in which a sort of 3D-ballgame can be played. Courtesy of the idea on Isaac Asimov.
Also, in the beginning I could imagine people do recreational wandering in the area, since those colonies will be quite confined. So a "Guided Excursions" office/building might be an idea. Hell, if it could be programmed like that, it could show on the map as a track vehicle driving to the corners of a colony's fat cross.

There's also adding some variety to the civs. Right now their traits are most likely default and everyone gets the same starting techs.

Hadn't looked deeper into the civs yet. Maybe I can come up with something.

 

[GeoModder]

For the units, have you guys decided if you will use "strength" promotions (and consequent sidepaths to specialise like scouting, healing,...) or the usual "a new unitmesh" every two or so techs as is the case now with Civ4.

The former means a few basic meshes, which perhaps a reskin for every new era, the latter a whole load of graphic work.

 

[woodelf]

Hologram Theatre? But perhaps that is better for a later era.
What is a must on the moon (with its lower gravity) is a low-G stadium. Basically a "tank" in which a sort of 3D-ballgame can be played. Courtesy of the idea on Isaac Asimov.
Also, in the beginning I could imagine people do recreational wandering in the area, since those colonies will be quite confined. So a "Guided Excursions" office/building might be an idea. Hell, if it could be programmed like that, it could show on the map as a track vehicle driving to the corners of a colony's fat cross.



Hadn't looked deeper into the civs yet. Maybe I can come up with something.

Unfortunately Holographics is 4th era, but that's definitely a required building for then.

A Stadium works well IMO. Thanks. Guided Excursions needs some tweaking, but it's a good idea. We have Parks eventually, but guided tours would be cool. Maybe Lunar hikes?

Any help for flavoring the civs would be appreciated.

 

[woodelf]

For the units, have you guys decided if you will use "strength" promotions (and consequent sidepaths to specialise like scouting, healing,...) or the usual "a new unitmesh" every two or so techs as is the case now with Civ4.

The former means a few basic meshes, which perhaps a reskin for every new era, the latter a whole load of graphic work.

So far the Promotions are basically Vanilla, but I added a "Surprise" promotion to aid Foot/Recon against Heavy. I think I deviated from the way promotions can be stacked so you don't always need Combat4 to get cool stuff. I think it depends on your UNITCOMBAT class. I followed the rock/paper/scissors idea of dsquared, but haven't gotten very far with units at all. The first era has them, but the lack of skins is killing my creativity.

Yeah, units are next in my queue.

 

[woodelf]

I think so. Either that or something else. Dont remember what else if it is.

I'll keep my fingers crossed. I'm about done balancing the techs so I'll be firing it up soon.

 

[GeoModder]

It's possible to "train" units (for instance, when on a plot with a fort or barracks or something), a few mods like that are already up. What if you used this trick so a fortified unit on the right facility/improvement "upgrades" in time in strength, representing stronger weapons as time passes by, while certain technologies disclose ability promotions which let a unit specialize against spies, air units, tracks, infantry,... you get the picture I think.

Of course, a check should be put in then that a unit cannot upgrade beyond a certain tresshold before its civ moves to the next era.

That way, you can keep on using the same basic meshes. The only drawback then is that the effects of weapons is pretty dull, since it will be the same all the time.

 

[GeoModder]

Any help for flavoring the civs would be appreciated.

Well, as long as I don't see/have a techlist for at least the first Era...

 

[woodelf]

Variety is the spice of life, or something like that. Honestly I don't know what JBG has in mind for forts, but we do have them. I like the A can beat B, B can beat C, and C can beat A mentality, we'll see how it works on the Moon....

You can definitely add happiness and health when researching a tech. Anyone have any early era suggestions for techs that needs bonuses? We also need an early money making building for Commerce.

 

[woodelf]

Well, as long as I don't see/have a techlist for at least the first Era...

Oops. I'm guessing about page 8, let me check.

edit : page 9, here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3610860&postcount=169

 

[GeoModder]

Got it. Browsing over it as we type...

 

[GeoModder]

Public Liberties - needs something!

Well... if you still accept new technologies, I would suggest "Chartra Selene" as a prerequisite of this one. In case of a translation problem, it means "Moon Articles" or "Agreements" or something like that.

 

[woodelf]

@JBG - Can you let me know if you'll have time to tweak the buildings? Since I did the tech flavors and advisors I think I can zip through them fairly quickly. Please let me know either way by tomorrow.

 

[woodelf]

I think we should list the civ flags that are showing up black. So far I've noticed:

Lunar Fed
Orbital Limited

They show up fine in the LH screen, but on the units they're dark/black.

 

[GeoModder]

Air Recycling and CO² Recycling, isn't that two times the same?
And the same for Automation and Robotics?

 

[woodelf]

Air Recycling and CO² Recycling, isn't that two times the same?
And the same for Automation and Robotics?

Yeah, there are some early redundancies. In the beginning I followed JBG's CivII mod to a letter. At the end I was winging it pretty well with no guidelines.

 

[GeoModder]

Do you mind if I merge the four I mentioned to two? And add "Chartra Selene" as basic tech? For 15 factions, I could use a tech more in the first row.

Wouldn't matter much to merge those 4 to 2 I think, since there are alot of second-row techs.

I can think of a few renamings as well, like "Relayed Surface Communication" instead of "Basic Radio", in the assumption that later on dedicated comsats will be put in orbit on a later tech.
And since "Warfare" and "Combat" are basically the same, perhaps the basetech named 'Low-G Training".


Trying to tackle the Coalitions atm. The rest seems to have more or less appropriate starting techs

 

[matthewv]

Okay here is the compete resourse buttons file. put it in the art/interface/bottons folder and replace the old file that is there. do not rename the file.

Edit let me know if some the bottons appear different then they appear weird as I have not tested it yet myself in the game.

 

[woodelf]

Do you mind if I merge the four I mentioned to two? And add "Chartra Selene" as basic tech? For 15 factions, I could use a tech more in the first row.

Wouldn't matter much to merge those 4 to 2 I think, since there are alot of second-row techs.

I can think of a few renamings as well, like "Relayed Surface Communication" instead of "Basic Radio", in the assumption that later on dedicated comsats will be put in orbit on a later tech.
And since "Warfare" and "Combat" are basically the same, perhaps the basetech named 'Low-G Training".


Trying to tackle the Coalitions atm. The rest seems to have more or less appropriate starting techs

Keep the suggestions coming. Thanks. I think we need another thread for mod change voting or something like that. Rewording is always appreciated.

 

[woodelf]

Okay here is the compete resourse buttons file. put it in the art/interface/bottons folder and replace the old file that is there. do not rename the file.

Edit let me know if some the bottons appear different then they appear weird as I have not tested it yet myself in the game.

I'll test these right now. Thanks matthewv!

Any playtesting notes to discuss?

 

[dsquared]

I am back, finally, did 7 tax returns today 70 total for the whole site, pretty average day, one lady had 11K income and 100 paid taxes, then she got 4500 back from the feds! biggest earned income credit i'd seen. oh well, nice work geo and woodelf i was never very happy with the initial techs they seemed sparse.

@woodelf if you want me to do units I would start from ground zero, i think we have a cluttered mess right now, I would simply chop everything and put in my unit structure, 4 units per era is a lot really, 6 once the bombers and batteries show up. I don't know if the +% vs unittype is overpowered yet because it doesnt specify how much it is in the unit hoverover, i think you did add that for the classes but it doesnt tell you so it needs playtesting, as i played it seemed like i was 99% to win or 4% depending on the unit so i think this is a manifestation of the +%.